InKoPah Concert and Camping – Tons and Tons of Long Exposures and Light Painting Pictures – No Celebrity Monday

They are not in order because Imgur fucks up the order and there are 123 pictures to organize. So I’m not doing that.

I guess 123 is way too many.

I shot 235 and edited to 123… that’s still too many. Couldn’t help it. It was a fun night of long exposures and light painting fun. Many of the shots came out amazing so I couldn’t leave them out of the edit.

And I deleted a few by accident. The next morning I had to shoot something nearby, and while I was shooting that, I checked my frames on broad daylight. There were a few Milky Way shots but with the sun shining brightly behind me, I thought they were black frames. And since the accidental shutter release happens quite often, I assumed they were just black frames. I deleted around six of them before realizing I was deleting some of my Milky Way shots. And I feel like some of the last ones were some of my best ones.

I tried the CF Card Recovery program, but since I don’t have an actual card reader, it didn’t work. Still. The shots I got of the Milky Way are good enough for me.

I never thought I would be getting that sort of images. You know what I mean?

That’s a 20-second exposure, the environment painted with my iPhone light, which gave the sky a weird purple glow. Edited with Lightroom and Snapseed for color and what not.

A lot of the light painting shots stuff was with just a flashlight. And they were alright.

Then some lady named Jean walked by with lights that she made and she let me borrow them. They worked SOOO great that I really need to invest in some light painting brushes, strips, and other materials.

This is her website. I sent her a message to see if I can get some lights.

Speaking of sending messages. Woke up to a task. Then I replied by sending all the images. Let’s see what happens!

And speaking of tasks.

I have shit tons of tasks. This week there will be more writing. I already took way too many pictures this weekend.

And speaking of the weekend… I did a lot of shit this weekend!

I obviously skipped my blog yesterday.

I got home around noon dead beat tired from camping in the desert. I showered and took a three-hour nap. Woke up around 4 pm to have a super late breakfast that my girlfriend prepared and to edit pictures. The rest of the time I spent with my girlfriend.

I missed her terribly on Saturday. I was so bored at the beginning of the festival, but the night escalated to tons of fun.

Saturday.

I got to my roommate’s girlfriend’s place in San Diego before 10:30 am. They told me to meet them at 10:30 am.

They weren’t ready at all.

But who cares.

We hung out for an hour or two while they got ready to go to Inkopah.

On our way there, we stopped by the dollar store, Albertson’s, and Subway.

Beers, snacks, a bottle of tequila, juice, water, flashlights, and what not.

Got to Inkopah around 3 pm. The sun was blazing hard. The weather was way better compared to the previous year which was a shit wind situation. Blazing sun = better than insanely strong winds.

I almost broke my whole tent while setting up. But thanks to my boy scout of a roommate, he helped me fix it.

Tiny ass tent. 6 feet by 4 feet. I’m 6’4. I gotta sleep in that fucker diagonally. And it says it fits two people…. they mean two dwarves…

We made up to the main concert area when the 3rd band was playing. Basic pop punk by older dudes named “The Widows.” Not interested in that… So we went up the Desert View Tower instead.

Then the Strawberry Moons played. That was way better. But still… without my girlfriend, that shit was boring me.

Went back to the campsite to grab more beers and relax far away from the show when I bumped into Rory…

Who is Rory?!

A musician I met at Rumble Fest forever ago. He hooked it up with more beers, tequila, and meeting up with strangers to party. So I missed a couple of more bands while we sat at the camp drinking, getting ready for nightfall to arrive.

When we went back to the stage, the sun was setting, so I grabbed my flash and wide angle that I love so much to start shooting more.

We climbed the Desert View Tower again. Some kids from Imperial Beach were there. They were the members of The Bassics. We partied with them for a while and later caught their show on stage (they were pretty awesome, Strokes sounding youth).

Before them, we caught Playboy Manbaby which was also fantastic. It was ska. But it pumped up the crowd. And their presence was great.

Snap snap snap.

Flash flash flash.

Move the camera around.

Light painting fun.

Ran out of beers. More tequila.

More snap snap snap.

We went back to camp and started doing all the light painting fun. For that, I needed to carry the heavy ass but awesome tripod everywhere.

More snap snap snap.

Back to the show, caught the end of The Mission Creeps (I wasn’t interested in that either)…

Then Birdy Bardot, the second to last band. That was great, but also not my usual cup of tea (because I drink coffee). Snap snap snap.

Play play play.

Snap snap snap.

And at midnight… I decided I had enough. Went back to the campsite and to try to catch some sleep and missed the last band.

Told Siri to wake me up at 2:30 am when the moon has set to shoot the Milky Way.

Took me a while to find the Milky Way because I was sleepy and confused.

It was right in front of me…. When I thought it was going to be behind me. It worked great. It was behind a rock with a nice shape and my neighbor campers (who let me borrow a couple of stakes for my tent).

Snap snap snap snap.

Sleepy snap snap snap.

Roommate walked by super drunk. They were still up and about to go to bed.

Took pictures for a good 30 minutes playing with long exposures and what not.

Took shots from inside the tent because I was so fucking tired.

Went back to bed.

Woke up at 7 am and it was already getting super hot outside. There was no way I could sleep more.

So I started picking up and cleaning my campsite.

Roommate and his girlfriend took longer to wake up and clean up. But after that, we went to do the photo mission that I had that was sort of nearby.

Snap snap snap.

Done.

I was so tired and hungover, I just wanted to go home, shower, sleep, edit.

And that’s what I did.

Roommate was nice enough to drop me off at the border. There was no public transit that day in San Diego, so I was going to be fucked if he didn’t do that.

Roommate wouldn’t take the $20 I was giving him for gas and for helping me get the shot I needed. So I just threw it in the car and bounced.

And now.

Now it’s Monday.

Shit.

It’s celebrity Monday.

I have a bunch of work for June, which is fantastic. A lot of writing. A lot of writing that I must get inspired to do.

And oh shit.

Celebrity Monday.

I didn’t even think of that.

Should I skip it?

I’m going to skip it…

I am going to cross the border today with a good Tijuana friend who has never crossed the border in his adult life. His only memory of crossing was when he was 8-years-old. Thirty years later… and he crosses the border again.